High School student Kaname Chidori seems like every other student her age, a normal popular girl, though she doesn't know just how popular she is! Unfortunately a group of terrorists believe that she is one of the 'Whispered' and the possessor of psychic powers, and will stop at nothing to possess the latent ability buried deep within her. Her only protection from these criminals is Mithril, a secret organisation dedicated to anti-terrorist operations and their agent in the field, Sousuke Sagara, the hardened combat veteran assigned to be her classmate and watch over her. Only Sousuke has never been a high school student before, only a soldier, and now he's either going to be her only protector, or he's going to drive her completely up the wall!

Review

Full Metal Panic effortlessly combines the best of traditional Japanese animation with computer graphics, producing a well integrated melange of the two styles that is a beauty to behold, but to be fair, the action and comedy in this series will keep the viewer transfixed with the content, rather than the method of delivery. The sound in the series mirrors the graphics at every turn, from the theme songs to the incidental music, either reflecting the military aspects or the more school-like reality of the duo's situation.

Sousuke is a complete disaster area in the face of a high school situation, reacting to the slightest thing as if it was a full-blown terrorist attack, disrupting the normality of Kaname's school life at every turn. This series really comes in two parts, the first is the comedy of the school situation, and the second is the slightly darker reality of the fight between Mithril and the terrorists and how the two come together and how it affects Kaname and her reluctant protector.

The whole series revolves around the interaction between the two protagonists, and can almost be seen as a story of a relationship between two dissimilar people set against the backdrop of a secret war between terrorist and mercenary groups. Regarding the first half of this bizarre pair, the interaction between Suosuke and Kaname is hilarious, no matter how hard he tries to protect her from perceived enemies, he just disrupts her life and causes chaos wherever they go. Luckily, Suosuke excels in the second half, and is an excellent soldier and AS pilot, so whenever duty calls, he wades into battle with enthusiastic vigour. If you like crazy romantic comedies, action and hulking giant robots, give Full Metal Panic a try.